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Monday, September 26, 2011

I've been looking for some handy, portable storage for my craft room - something that didnt cost a fortune, held tons and looked ok.

Then I thought of the good ol' bathroom caddy that holds all the shampoos and scrubs but the problem is most of my crafty bits would fall through the bars....

So I had to make some sort of a liner to fit in each tier of the caddy:

Here it is full of the everyday craft stuff...

The caddy came from Heatons and cost €15. I found the pattern on this blog and changed it from round to oval. All it took was an afternoons work, some scraps of fabric and now I have something useful and original. It is quite heavy but at least I can lift it up and hoover underneath!

Thursday, September 22, 2011

While I was down in Clare I brought some of my stash with me (just a little bit, lol!) and made some Autumn/Halloween inspired cards.These have now been published in Issue 4 of Crafting Ireland which is a Must Read with lots of tutorials and great craft hints and tips (including altering/revamping a lampshade).

This could be an easel card but wouldn't it look better as a Halloween decoration on my windowsill? I looooove Halloween!The stamp is a mini Inkadinkadoo one: the papers are Echo Park Apothercary Emporium: the black bobble trim is from Hickeys and the skull comes from my dismembered jewellery collection - glued on to a wooden button. If this has put you in a spooky frame of mind I have some great Halloween embellishments in my Etsy shop including Bats, Owls and Orange/Black crochet flowers. Maybe I'll make up some skulls as well...you'd never know.Happy Crafting folks,Geraldine x

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Back as promised (threatned) to bore you with photos and tales from our hols down in the Burren, Co. Clare. Well, the weather was wet, wild and windy and Himself had the Manflu but we made the best of it and got ourselves out to the Burren Perfumery and its magical herb garden and its tea rooms. Of course I had to buy some lovely organic rose facial serum and rose face cream 'cause I'm at the age where you have to look after yourself, right? And a few bits and pieces for Xmas pressies etc, etc... Well, we had to vacate the audiovisual presentation in a hurry when Himself got a fit of coughing. Maybe a Perfumery wasn't the best place to bring a Manflu sufferer???

The herb gardens attached to the Perfumery are stunning...you would come out of it wanting to redesign your own space..

Liam in an arbour of Golden Rod.

The cutest little glasshouse ever!

This was an old bed frame with an old cast iron bath inside it..with a chicken wire frame in the shape of the human body inside the bath....with moss and small plants growing over it. If you look close you might see what I mean..

A little pool that had Water Boatmen skating all over it..but the photo doesn't show this.

According to the experts September is not the best month to see the rare plants and flowers in the Burren but here are a few we saw:

Carline thistle

Bloody Cranesbill - the pink flowers!

Maidenhair fern peeping out from a crack..

Himself in front of a row of Hazel Trees. Believe it or not I had never seen hazel nuts on a Hazel tree until now..

Hazel tree with nuts!

Hawthorn tree bonsaied by the weather,wind etc in the Burren

Hawthorn tree bonsaied by man in a Bonsai nursery just outside Kinvarra, Co. Galway. Man copying nature...or man learning/improving on nature?Now for the bit of culture...when I last visited the Poulnambron Dolmen (1992) I was able to climb on top of it with Snip, my Pom (Little Snippets, geddit??) and have our photo taken. Nowadays things are a bit more controlled and OPW'd (Office of Public Works).. there is a rope around the actual dolmen...

But when you hear that this was only discovered and excavated in the 1980's...it makes you wonder what other ancient sites are hiding from us.To return to more modern times we did manage to visit An Siopa Bui, the Craft Supplies hub of the West and much further and manage to buy some Whiff of Joy dies and plunder the depths of their PayperBox supplies. Kerry and Kim are so helpful and knowledgeable and enlightening that a trip from anywhere is worthwhile!Ger x

Now that I'm back from my hols its time to show my 2nd DT make for this months BTC&G "All things Bright and Beautiful" challenge. I have used the Penny Black "Primp" stamp - ooh I loooove that cheeky cat and wouldn't she look gorgeous on a Debs/Prom/Wedding card?

The papers are Papermania Capsule collection and Doodlebug designs;the velvety flowers are Maya Road. So if you have something bright and beautiful made up don't be shy...go and enter it in this months BTC&G challenge for a chance to win some great crafty prizes.Don't hold your breath but I might be back later to bore everyone with my holiday snaps...and that's a threat!Ger x

Friday, September 2, 2011

Noticed that there are a few challenges out there with a "Make your own Flowers" theme. Lovely! So before I scoot off on my hols here is a flowery card embellished with my own hand made fabric yoyo flowers that I topped with pearls and some crochet. Sounds like the recipe for an ice cream dessert, doesnt it?

Close-up of yoyo flowers:

The papers are My Minds Eye, pearls are Melissa Frances; the butterflies and crochet frame are my own.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Its Sept 1st time for a new challenge at BTCG and this month the ever resourceful Lisa has chosen "All Things Bright and Beautiful" as the theme. She has been inspired by Harvest time , Autumn and all the bright colours of autumn leaves. She says:

Its up to you how you interpret the theme .. and remember you can enter any type of craft project - it doesn't just have to be paper craft. You can enter our challenges more than once but it must be with a different kind of craft from your previous entry for that challenge , only 1 card, 1 tag, 1 cross stitch , 1 scrapbook page.

For my 1st project I decided to concentrate on the "Bright" part of the challenge and altered 2 little glass and metal lanterns from our local €2 shop

I scraped the painted flowers off the glass, sanded down the metal frames, gave them a coat of gesso and added trims, flowers, ribbons and braid and voila!

There are 4 more similar little lanterns that I'm planning to give a Christmassy makeover to later on....